Tattooed homicide suspect planned to dispose of body, police say

A man suspected of killing his girlfriend and hiding her body in the attic for two days was arrested after a witness told police about the shooting and the man’s plans to dispose of the body.

James Gina, 50, was arrested Monday after he was found with his girlfriend’s body inside a home on the 1600 block of Golden Arrow Drive, near Maryland Parkway and Desert Inn Road, according to an arrest report from the Metropolitan Police Department released Friday.

A man went to a Metro area command on Monday afternoon to report what he had seen.

He told police Gina and his girlfriend, 27-year-old Celina Rebholz, had been fighting on Saturday when Gina told her, “I’ll put three in you if you don’t shut up.”

The witness left and went to gamble, but when he returned, he told police Gina was “acting frantic and distraught,” and asked the man if he could help save Rebholz. She was alive, but naked, with a bullet hole in her chest, gurgling blood on the floor of Gina’s bedroom.

Gina told the man the next day that he put Rebholz’s lifeless body in the attic, according to the arrest report. He asked the man to drive him and his mother to a rental car business so he could rent a car with her credit card.

“(The man) surmised Gina was going to use the rental car to move Celina’s body,” detectives wrote in the report.

Gina’s mother told police they needed to rent a car because all of their cars were inoperable. She said Gina accidentally shot the woman while playing with a gun.

Gina was arrested Monday evening and refused to speak to police. He is being held without bail and expected to appear in court again for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 5.

Gina has a criminal history in Clark County dating back to 2002, which includes multiple domestic violence cases and convictions for five felonies, court records show. His first arrest in the county was in 2002 on misdemeanor charges of domestic violence, in a case that was later dismissed.

He has pleaded guilty to felony charges that include battery resulting in substantial bodily harm constituting domestic violence, battery resulting in substantial bodily harm, coercion constituting domestic violence and possession of a stolen vehicle.

His most recent felony conviction was last year, when he pleaded guilty to operating a chop shop, court records show.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.